On the people in my neighborhood, v6

  • There’s a new Struth museum photo on my street; it moved in next door to an old Frank Stella painting. People who have good art rarely bother with curtains.
  • Researching The Atomic Revolution, that rad Establishment comic book I want to rip off for my Animated Musical, I ventured into the library of The Society of Illustrators, which turns out to be just around the corner. Who knew? It’s sort of an inker’s Friar’s Club; there’s a gallery on the ground floor, a bar/dining room (which I’d imagine fills up with crusty cartoonists around, oh, 11:00AM), and an eclectic library on the third floor. Alas, no trace of Mr M. Philip Copp or The Atomic Revolution. [At least not there.]
  • On my corner, then, an entrepreneurial neighborhood scamp from the co-op had set up two Hammacher & Schlemmer-y folding tables, and was doing brisk business in home-baked goods. A couple of years ago, the kid–he’s probably 12 now, with new braces–set up one table in front of my building to sell gum. (Parents buy a case at Cost-co, kid sells the packs individually. It’s like printing money, for a 10-year old. Still, as our now-closed neighborhood fountain pen store proved, you need more than one product; I gave him a couple of books to sell.)
    He’s since learned the importance of location–and foot traffic–to a retail operation. And he’s got his schtick down pat; as the neighborhood ladies marvelled at the marble cake (“And is that red velvet? I make that!”), he let it slip that he’d baked it himself last night. That’s right, those kids over on Fifth may be foisting their nanny-cake on the doormen, but on Lex, the law of the retail jungle prevails: it’s every man for himself. By the time his parents brought the Range Rover around for the drive to Southampton, he’d sold out his entire inventory of brownies and (bundt and red velvet) cakes.
    Lizzie Grubman, if you ever actually open a bakery here, you’ll have some stiff competition.

    • On, Apparently, Not Getting the Memo

    I broke down and subscribed to Harper’s after they jacked up their newsstand price. I can’t go without my Harper’s [You shouldn’t either.] But apparently, much like David Remnick before him, the illustrious Roger Hodge somehow neglected to notify me of Harper’s Weekly Review, which resides online. I had to learn about it from The Morning News. Not bad, but still. When is Big Media going to realize it’s real problem is not paying me enough attention?
    But nevermind that for now. Here’s an excerpt from this/last week [Urgent note to Mr Hodge: What, no archive??]

    President George W. Bush staged a handshake between the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers at a summit meeting in Jordan. President Bush, Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, and King Abdullah II of Jordan stood outdoors together in the hot sun wearing suits and ties but were kept free of unsightly perspiration by tubes installed by White House operatives that blasted cold air from an ultra-quiet air conditioner that was hidden nearby. Sharon and Abbas read statements about the “road map” to peace that were largely written by American officials. “I think when you analyze the statements, you’ll find them to be historic,” Bush told reporters later. “Amazing things were said.” Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade responded to the summit with a joint attack on an Israeli military outpost in Gaza, killing four soldiers. Elsewhere, in the West Bank, Israeli forces shot a seven-year-old Palestinian girl in the abdomen.

    Frieze Mag’s SMS Reports from Venice

    The Venice Biennale is opening right now, and the artworld (minus 1 or 2) is trying to crash each other’s parties. Far from regretting not being there, I am getting a full Biennale experience, thanks to Frieze Magazine’s, SMS reports. For the second morning in a row, we were repeatedly startled awake by my cell phone vibrating across the room.
    Here’s one from yesterday: FriezeSMS Venice 03: Text message codes: Pav=Pavilion. Gia=Giardini. Ar=Arsenale. IO=Invite Only. Pa=Party.
    And this morning, a splash of a review: FriezeSMS: Not even the Op Art effect of the glittering lagoon prepares you for Ofili + Adjaye’s luminescent rooms. Paradise is within reach. Sun Factor 40…
    Last Biennale, too, we waited until later in the summer, avoiding the art masses, at least. Here’s my Sept. 7, 2001 post about the visit, from back when the weblog was young.

    Rafael Vinoly on the WTC Competition(s)

    [via Archinect] Last month, MIT’s Dept. of Architecture hosted a presentation by Rafael Vinoly, the Al Gore of last year’s WTC competition study competition. Vinoly was part of Team THINK, and he tells about the antics at Herbert Muschamp’s NYT Ground Zero (about 20 minutes into the stream), coming up with their plan for building a World Cultural Center (about 40 minutes in), and winning the campaign.
    Some highlights: (1:15:00) “Libeskind was courted; he was actually in Germany and decided not to enter, and the LMDC went to Germany to get him– because he was the Owner of Death or something (audience laughter).”
    Vinoly may be more polite, but he’s not alone in his criticism of Libeskind. “Dream Teamers” Peter Eisenman and Steven Holl weren’t shy in discussing their disgust, either. And as Gothamist reports, Libeskind’s design is still under fire from many sides.
    Though he pointedly doesn’t talk about waking up the next morning to find out they’d lost, Vinoly does give some advice on the Memorial Competition: (1:42:00) Q. Should entrants in the Memorial Competition take the Libeskind scheme as a departure point? A. “The major prob with the [Libeskind] scheme is that the scheme does the Memorial… I know for a fact…that what [the LMDC and memorial jury] are expecting is precisely somethng that actually changes this…Do what you want, because that’s what they’re expecting.”

    Speaking of the End of The World…

    Maybe a Tarkovsky movie works best as a memory; watching The Sacrifice again after many years was a little trying. However easily I got distracted by some of the antic, theatrical acting, the make-or-break single-take scene at the end, where the < SPOILER ALERT> house burns < /SPOILER> has a langorous, unassuming awesomeness. It’s not your typical one-shot, in so many ways.
    Anyway, The Sacrifice’s post-nuclear armageddon setting reminded me of a good Wim Wenders film, Until The End of the World. Actually, it was listening to the even greater soundtrack, which reminded me.

    On Taste Tribes

    via Boingboing: On Mindjack, Joshua Ellis writes at length about what he calls Taste Tribes, friendship by cultural affinity–liking people who like the same stuff. Blogs are the engines for the smarter artist/chiefs of their own taste tribes.
    shagpad logoI cooked something up along those lines in 1999 at Shagpad, which was based on the Austin Powerish, Abercrombie & Fitchy theory that people bought stuff in direct relation to its ability to get them laid. Or as the VC-Powerpoint presentation-ready slogan goes, “Shagpad.com leverages web and e-commerce technology to monetize aspirational lifestyle portfolios that facilitate getting mad play.” The idea came out of some client work which became, in part, Pop.com (They chose the wrong part, I thought.) At Shagpad are a couple of essays that are not quite embarassing enough to take offline (and besides, the buy-this-lifestyle Amazon links usually pay the hosting).
    [Update: It should be noted that I peeled off my friend Jeff’s last name; he’s a sculptor in Red Hook, and the Google searches were beginning to cramp his style. Now that Wallpaper* has declared Red Hook trendy, I’ll probably have to change that, too. Aaron, you have my sympathy.]

    Bloghdad.com/Baghdad_Museum_Director_Due_For_A_Private_Lynching

    First, the BBC uncovers the truth behind the too-good-to-be-factchecked Saving Private Lynch story, calling it “one of the most stunning pieces of news management ever conceived.”
    Now, according to the Guardian, a BBC news program shows the Wholesale Looting of The Baghdad Museum story to be just as made up.
    Question for media: When it’s a Ba’ath party official playing you, do you still call it “news management” or is it just lying? Bigger question for media: Now that you’ve been demonstrably managed lied to by nearly everyone in this war, are you going to start demonstrating a scintilla of journalistic skepticism?

    Meteorite Mashes Marfa Minimalist Masterpiece, Maybe?

    Donald Judd, image:chinati.org

    Mmmm? In Art Papers, the artist Evan Levy tells the story of visiting The Chinati Foundation, Donald Judd’s minimalist mecca in Marfa, Texas. He found “a flaw, a missing corner, in one of the concrete sculptures,” which Judd placed in the field beyond his converted army warehouses. Later, Levy discovered a meteorite nearby, and wondered if it’s “the only intergalactic rock to have struck a work of modern art?” He built a show around it, apparently.
    It sounds implausible to me, and not just because he was supposedly forbidden to take any pictures of the sculpture. (I have all kinds of pictures from my trip to Marfa.) But ask him yourself next week. He’s giving a promisingly titled artist’s talk, ennui & asteroids, Sunday June 14th at 2pm at the Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta.
    [Bonus alliterative update: Memories of Making Movies in Marfa]

    The Art House Project: James Turrell and Tadao Ando in Naoshima

    turrell_ando.jpg

    Ando and Turrell collaborated on Minamidera, a Buddhist temple on Naoshima, a small island in Japan’s Inland Sea. Is it worth noting that Ando was a boxer and Turrell was a Quaker? Here is one exchange from their conversation inside the completed space:

    Ando:The color is really nice. I have no difficulty just being here for 10 minutes.
    Turrell:Sometimes 10 minutes is difficult in modern life. This is fine that the situation of a work like this in a small town, puts together traditional and the contemporary. It’s a way that makes some sense. I think that things in contemporary art must be something for you.They need to be near your life, too. People here at first, may wonder about this work, and about the architecture. Over time, it should be very interesting for them, because other people will come on a long journey just to see their town.

    The Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum oversees “The Art House Project,” where disused traditional buildings are restored in collaboration with a contemporary artist. In addition to Turrell, the artists Tatsuo Miyajima, Rei Naito, and Hiroshi Sugimoto have completed Art Houses. The hotel on the island, Bennesse House, was designed by Ando. The crappily decorated rooms each have generally good, unique, contemporary art in them.

    Here’s what you gotta do

    G, in the Garden, 2002, Lisa Yuskavage, image:marianneboeskygallery.com

  • See Christian Marclay’s amazing 4-screen work, Video Quartet, now showing at the Hammer Museum in LA (I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll mention it again. This piece ROCKS.) [via TD and ArtKrush]
  • See The Cremaster Cycle in Washington, DC (or, apparently, in San Rafael, CA) [via me, because I’m in DC]
  • See the exhibition of Raghubir Singh’s photographs at the Sackler Gallery. It’s a thousand times better than the silly, irrelevant Ethiopian show next door, which Tyler got worked up about on Modern Art Notes.
  • See any Chris Marker film you can in NYC, either at Anthology or Film Forum. His Remembrance of Things to Come was haunting and depressing; One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich is playing Saturday.
  • See Meredith Danluck’s blownout abstract paintings at Andrew Kreps Gallery and Lisa Yuskavage’s blowaway gorgeous paintings at Marianne Boesky Gallery.

    • Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Winner

    The Atomic Revolution Comic Book, image: ep.tc
    detail, The Atomic Revolution, image: ep.tc

    [Dublog, you rock.] If I could get the artist of The Atomic Revolution to do my Animated Musical, I would. Ausin-based artist Ethan Persoff found the mysterious 1957 comic book at an estate sale, along with “a corporate memo, a vinyl recording discussing Einstein’s theories and a large calendar-sized brochure of modern-art-inspired paintings using a number of atomic weapons companies’ logos.” He scanned it and posted it online.
    The caption for the above image reads: “On December 8, 1953, President Eisenhower proposed to the United Nations that the world join together to ‘strip the atom of its military casing and adapt it to the arts of peace.’ Even now the United States is building portable atomic power stations that can be shipped by air to any part of the world. These capsules of civilization [??] can be used to produce heat, power, and radioactivity.”
    Some of the gorgeous line drawings are based on photographs. They have a stunning combination of clarity, obfuscation, optimism and eerieness. If there was an Government-Issue Version of Detective Story, the noir installment of The Animatrix, this is what it’d look like. Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe did both Detective Story and Kid’s Story, which gives the backstory on Neo;’s exasperating Zion groupie. Free will does not extend to not getting Animatrix. Buy it now. We have quotas to meet.

    Confound me: Wim Wenders’ Audi Roadmovie

    I, of all people, should like a sponsored roadmovie featuring an Audi, and a Handspring. Go figure.
    Another GreenCine find, Wim Wenders has directed a The Other Side of the Road, a 6-minute filmmercial for the introduction of the Audi A3. See it at Audi’s Germany site. Like most Wenders work, plot takes a backseat to scenery (and since the A3 is a hatchback, it’s a very small backseat). Some grungy couple, a sleek couple, a lot of desert driving, cleverly placed signs with the ad agency’s slogans: admire me, push me, love me, etc.

    Wim Wenders Photos, image:wim-wenders.com

    There’s a Making Of montage, too, which I found more engaging. The whole thing’s wordless, with a repetitive porny soundtrack. And there’s an interview with Wenders in German. The film takes a lot of visual cues from Wenders’ photos (above), which he exhibited in 1995-6.

    Film Festival Directors On Film Festivals and Directors

    [via GreenCine] David points to a GreenCine article last year where a table of film festival directors review the history and future of the festival.
    Some started as propaganda (Venice, Cannes, Berlin), some as flukes founded by freaks, but festivals are constantly balancing the art and commercialism, pure love of cinema with selling out.

    How can festivals avoid falling into the trap of becoming just another stop along way for the Hollywood press junket? “Cultivate Internet critics,” insisted [Toronto FF head Piers] Handling. “They are young, they are hip, they are different, they have a very different sensibility. And they are trying to discover young talent, new talent… they are not as fixated on Julia Roberts.”

    Bloghdad.com/Roadtrip

    One man decides to up-and-go to Iraq and see it for himself. Check out his writings and photographs (via Kottke:

    i decided to go, probably, during the second week of the war, when my frustration with the western media had hit a boiling point. it was during the second week that al-jazeera was banned from the NYSE and told by the british to censor its imagery. meanwhile their ratings were skyrocketing and they laughed through a 10-fold increase in viewers while being surreptitiously bombed in baghdad (by american shells). but mistakes happen, people dont get along and wasn’t it a war, anyway?